Morris tribune., 1887-01-12
AMONG THE ORCHIDS.
THE HUNTERS SEARCH THROUGH
STEAMY TROPICAL FORESTS.

A Sight to Make Ones Heart Stop Beat
inS-The Varieties of Orchids Almost
Innumcrable-SOme Very Peculiar Spe-
cies-Grcat Risks.
Imagine yourself, first of all, among the
dark-skinned natives of South America
in n small town of rough wooden huts.
thatched with leaves and bark from the
palm trees. All around you vegetation
is luxuriant, more luXuriant than You
can ever imagine it possible to be. The
grass 80 thick you can not set your foot
upon the black loan below, and the trees
seem to run wild with full, unbounded,
unfettered life. Vitality is a wonderful
force here, and nothing seems to rctard
it, You gaze up i'll the street ut the mag
nificent palms, whose branches seem al
ways in motion, as if the very abundance
of life in them made motion involun-
tary. You look across at the fern trees
growing in thick clumps on the edge of a
swamp, and try to pierce through their
rich, shadowy leaves into the thick dark
ness of the forest beyond, but you see
nothing but the mass of green and the
spikes of palms waving above, almost
touching the clouds themselves
But all this time the hunter is making
ready. A half dozen native guides and
woodsmen are packing provisions, ropes,
axes, guns and ammunition, and knives
and pistols, into huge baskets, which
they hang upon the mules, and when all
is done the party mounts and rides away.
A winding Path leads them into the jun.
gle, and soon after they plunge into the
forest itself. 1t is not easy progress, for
hundred vines are woven back and
forth from tree to tree at every STEP
and the underbush covers huge fallen
tree trunks and treacherous, slippery
bogs in the marshy land. Then, too, it
is dark and hot, and the steam rises from
the marsh full of earthly odors. But
most to be dreaded arc the poisonous rep
tiles that seem lodged under every fallen
trunk or hid in every thicket of under
brush.
FAINT BUT PECULIAR oDOR.
But passing through the thickest of it
the hunter suddenly scents n faint but
peculiar odor that sends thrill of joy
through him, and he pushes forward with
redoubled zeal. Following The direction
of the scent he soon emerges into small
open space, and there just across bog of
black water overhanging the edge of the
swamp is sight that fairly makes your
heart stop beating-for there are the
orchids. They are on the stumpS of dead
trees that were tall and fresh till the
orchids fastened their prong like roots
deep into the tender branches and
drained the life of the trees. Here they
have grown in the heart of the wilder
ness for centuries, till those sturdy trees
died because of them, and then rotted and
Coll 49, ~.
to shatter the ruined trunk to fragments.
Here they have bloomed for year after
year in all their glorious beauty, and
only the reptiles and birds, the monkeys
and apes the alligators and the myriad,
myriad insects on glossy, gauzy wings to
see their beauty and to breathe in the
strong, sweet perfume.
They hang over the water in festoons,
every cord-like runner alive with tiny
blossoms. There is one the natives call
"Marie poser" for it is rs though some
winged butterfly had poised above the
opening flower and left the impress of its
shadow there. Indeed, the vivid, rich
hued petals seem to have caught the very
tone and 1uster of the insects sparkling
wings, and wave themselves upon the
tendrils like it's motion.
Other flowers higher up are purer and
more delicate in color, as though looking
up to cloudland they had caught the
heavenly tints upon their petals and
transfixed them there. The varieties are
almost innumerable, and the flowers
vary in shape and size and coloring al
most endlessly. In fact, two plants ex-
actly alike are rarely found, and rery
often flowers of different species grow
upon the same stem.
But another difficulty faces the hunter
The odor of the flower, so delightful at
first, becomes Overpowering when one is
in close proximity to it, and will over
come and kill the hunter if he remains
too long. The first step is to carefully
mark each dead tree ON which the orchid
lives, and then, later in the season, when
the plant stops towering the hunter re-
turns and takes them away.
These plants live on the air and are of
slow growth, although they are so lux
uriant and SO prodigal in their blossoming
many of them living to be over thou
sand years old.
ANOTHER CLASS OF ORCHIDS.
There is another class of orchids that
make their home in the mountain re-
cesses on the sides of the Andes, which
fasten upon the rocks, and some, indeed,
which oToyI- bo Cr1,o,,vl ~, bo